Modern economies and business services typically run complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous Information Technology (IT) of computer infrastructures. For example, computer infrastructures can include one or more servers or host devices and one or more storage arrays interconnected by communication devices, such as switches or routers. The servers can be configured to execute one or more virtual machines (VMs) during operation. Each VM is typically configured to execute or run one or more applications or workloads.
Certain computer infrastructure customers utilize remote input/output (IO) caching, such as host based caching, to improve the performance of the applications as well as to offload the computer infrastructure. For example, when writing IO to a lowest storage tier in the computer infrastructure, the host device must travel down to the lower layers in the computer infrastructure to access the blocks, which can increase latency.
Host based caching can improve the performance of applications executed by the infrastructure, such as by offloading SANs or any network attached storage, to reduce cost. Typically, conventional SANs can run out of compute capacity before it runs out of storage capacity, unlike distributed storage. Host based caching can also offload the network infrastructure (e.g., the fewer packets that travel across the network, the less pressure/load on the network). Host based caching can also increase the density of the virtualized environment. Further, with introduction of the read and write (e.g., write through and write back) cache, a customer can achieve substantially consistent latency in the infrastructure which, in the case of network attached storage can vary (e.g., on average, the latency may be 10 ms, however it may vary otherwise).